The Presidency is Fully Powerful too much powerful. Through the performance of his duties, the acclaim of the people, and the abdication of responsibility by the legislature, the chief executive of this country gained almost unilateral power to wage war, and rapidly gained an equally monarchical say in domestic policy. It is being acquired. However, the position is still elected. American citizens have the right to job interviews with promising candidates. Unfortunately, presidential “debates” hardly fulfill that role, especially the choreographed kabuki meeting between Joe Biden and Donald Trump scheduled for this summer.
rattle A weekly newsletter published by JD Tucille. If you care about government overreach and obvious threats to everyday freedoms, this is for you.
Meetup according to rules
“Trump feeds on crowds and they feed on him,” said an anonymous Biden adviser. politiko Regarding the exclusion of spectators from events. “We wanted to get rid of it.”
Biden's supporters fear that speaking in front of living, breathing people will negatively impact the potential Republican nominee's strengths (and, conversely, Biden's weaknesses). We want to take that off the table. But this is just one of the restrictions placed on the June 27 and September 10 rallies specified by the Biden campaign and agreed to by the Trump campaign. The debate will not go through the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, but will be hosted by CNN (June) and ABC News (September). They will eliminate other presidential candidates. And the meet-and-greet follows kindergarten rules, with participants only allowed to take turns speaking while other candidates' microphones are turned off.
This year's bizarre, rules-bound “debates” are the inevitable culmination of a long process to make networking as easy as possible for Democratic and Republican standard-bearers. The Commission on Presidential Debates is extremely upset that it was ignored, but itself follows independent organizations such as the League of Women Voters who have refused to oblige, leading to major political parties creating an advantageous situation for their candidates. It was established for.
“The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations amount to fraud against American voters.” Federation President Nancy M. Newman agreed to set the rules in 1988. Cooperation between Democrats and Republicans. “It has become clear that candidate organizations are adding debates to their list of campaign showpieces that lack substance, spontaneity, and honest answers to tough questions.”
Bypassing committees, which are themselves creatures of political parties, in favor of candidate-friendly arrangements between campaigns, it formalizes a system that abandoned externally imposed discipline long ago. Now, decades after outside organizations put the screws in the campaign machine and memories have faded, this travesty will be abolished.
Convenient staging
Speaking of fading memories, keen political observers will note that the 2024 presidential election will be held in November.it's 2 months rear The second and probably final debate. It's reasonable to assume that the Biden campaign, in particular (Trump is insisting on more matchups), is hoping that the uneditable poor performance will be forgotten by Election Day.
The first debate is scheduled for June, before the Democratic convention in August or the Republican convention in July, so neither Biden nor Trump will yet be the official standard-bearers of their parties.they will do that probably They could be nominated, but technically they're just more likely to be candidates.
What is questionable here is that the June 10th rally was scheduled so early because ordinary people are more likely to be away on summer vacation than to be interested in politics. A disastrous performance by an ancient politician who may have long passed his selling deadline leaves time for a newcomer to slip into the field after weeks of behind-the-scenes maneuvering and intrigue by potential replacements.
The exclusion of other presidential candidates, especially Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is frustrating but not surprising. At the time, the Commission on Presidential Debates allowed only one outsider candidate to debate. That was Ross Perot in 1992, and he did well in the polls, receiving 19 percent of the vote after performing well on stage. The committee banned Mr. Perot in 1996 and never again admitted independent or third-party candidates to the club.
Polls show support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. averages around 10 percent, and no one is completely sure how his candidacy will affect Biden and Trump. So it's understandable that the major political camps would want to exclude independents (although Trump has shown an open attitude towards independents). three-way discussion). However, voters may be insensitive to name-brand options, favoring both alternatives when asked, and may want to know what one or more of the alternatives has to offer.
Another disadvantage to the people is cutting off the microphones of candidates who are not speaking. Conventional wisdom says this hurts Mr. Trump, who has a bad habit of interrupting his opponents. But the former president's aggressive attitude is not universally popular. Voters need to watch the two political rematches spar on stage so they can judge such exchanges for themselves.
Debates should be tough on candidates.
Unfortunately, some people seem to think that the purpose of political debates (or “debates”) is not to test the mettle of candidates, but to move the system toward a desired outcome. is.
“Donald Trump and President Biden should not have a one-on-one debate,” scholar and frequent commentator John McWhorter warned last week. “And Biden's decision to participate in the two debates he just announced is a mistake that overlegitimizes Trump.”
McWhorter is usually a sharp and rational thinker, but his concerns that Trump could “warp the debate into a cage game” and overwhelm Biden are woefully misplaced. Mr. Trump's legitimacy is measured not by standing on the same stage as his opponents, but by the millions of Americans who support his candidacy. Candidates who are unwilling to face off against political opponents on the television stage are likely to be even less prepared for high-stakes decisions and behind-the-scenes showdowns with world leaders.
If so, now is not the time to abandon the debate and Democrats should replace Mr. Biden with a replacement who is up to the challenge of answering questions, thinking on the fly and exchanging retorts. The timing of the June 10th meeting suggests someone is thinking along those lines.
Ultimately, debates serve no purpose for candidates and their campaigns. As long as the presidency wields great power, and that seems unlikely to change anytime soon, voters should be able to test applicants for the job. If test takers hate those tests, even better.
